It's October 29. Mid-autumn. It was 70° yesterday, and 72.8° today. The bees are flying when it's that warm, and at this time of year there is nothing left for them to eat. Or is there? I went out to the beeyard today to put another pollen patty on the hives and was pleasantly surprised to see the girls flying in with full pollen pockets. The pollen patties that I put on at the beginning of October were completely gone. I didn't want to keep the covers open for too long, as the yellow jackets were very interested in what we had going on, but the boxes were full of bees with not a drone to be seen (see the last post if you're wondering why). The video below is from today and shows some ladies hard at work cleaning, sealing cracks with propolis and bringing in food.
The population of the weak hive that I combined with a stronger one looks good; the major issue at this point is that they have no honey or pollen stored and will be fully dependent on the strong hive below them. I went out today to add winter pollen patties to the hives as added insurance. The patties contain Megabee and Honey-B-Healthy, with 2.5% protein (which is supposedly relatively low and will not stimulate brood rearing - good for winter). I've used pollen patties in the past without a shim between the patty and the inner cover and it causes everything to stick together with little room for the bees to move around. This time, I added shims to provide adequate space for the patty. The bees looked happy and were incredibly calm. SO much improved from their mood when they were being robbed two weeks earlier. I was thrilled to see pollen still coming into both hives. I also witnessed (for the first time in person) workers actively removing drones from the hive! It was incredible to watch three or four strong ladies dragging the poor fellas to the edge of the bottom board and pushing them off. One gentleman attempted to return four times while I was watching! How persistent! In the video below, you can see the girls chasing him. They start in the middle of the video frame and end in the bottom center where the entrance reducer meets the side of the bottom board. I'd read a lot about bees being robbed, especially during autumn when pollen and nectar sources are becoming more and more scarce. I'd read a lot about feeding, that when there is a dearth in food sources for the bees, they are at greater risk of going into the winter and clustering months with low supplies. Since I was suspicious that I'd lost some previous hives to early winter starvation, I decided that it would be in their best interest (and mine) to feed them. I put the front entrance feeders on on a Sunday afternoon, and by Monday afternoon they were both empty, so I refilled them. When checking on Tuesday afternoon, I found an empty feeder on one of the hives and an absolute frenzy. From observing from afar, things just didn't look right. Honeybees were flying around in rapid circles over and in front of the hive. The calm, leisurely flight patterns in and out of the hive were nonexistent, and when I approached even the sound of the bees flying had a higher pitch to it. If you watch the videos below, you will see, under the feeder, a cluster of bees that are clearly at odds over the sugar syrup. Bees drop down every few seconds as they are being pushed away. The hive on the left didn't seem to be affected at all, but to be safe I removed both front entrance feeders, battened down the hatches with entrance reducers and covered both hives with wet sheets. Sometimes a strong colony can successfully fight off robbers, but because honeybees fight to the death and die when they sting trying to defend their hive, they could be overpowered by robbers desperate for food. I decided not to take any chances. The sheets will stay on for a couple of days and then I will remove them and hope for the best.
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AuthorSuburban homesteading through trial and error. Archives
May 2015
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